Quote
"Since they all had a slightly yellow tinge to their skin, he assumed they were munitions workers. Munitionettes, as the newspapers liked to call them." -p.87
Definition
Munitionettes were women who worked in factories to produce weapons during WWI. The reason for these women to perform such activities was in order to take the place of the many husbands, fathers, and brothers who would be leaving for war. Their job was to take up the men's positions at the factories. Many women who worked as munitionettes were of the lower class and were not paid as well as the men who worked these same jobs. Yet despite the low pay, women continued to work diligently making and filling shells and cartridges, as well as performing cleaning duties, driving, and intense labor. With the munitionettes taking the place of deployed soldiers' places in the factories, they showed great patriotism at the home front.
By the end of the war there were 950,000 women working as mutitionettes. It was pretty dangerous work, and there would occasionally be explosions that would kill some women.
Munitionettes are important to Regeneration because Sarah Lumb and her friends are munitionettes. Without munitionettes the war wouldn't have been as successful for Great Britain because when all the men were off fightingthere would have been no one to build the weapons.
Munitionettes
Edward Skinner, For King and Country (1916)
Quote
"Since they all had a slightly yellow tinge to their skin, he assumed they were munitions workers. Munitionettes, as the newspapers liked to call them." -p.87
Definition
Munitionettes were women who worked in factories to produce weapons during WWI. The reason for these women to perform such activities was in order to take the place of the many husbands, fathers, and brothers who would be leaving for war. Their job was to take up the men's positions at the factories. Many women who worked as munitionettes were of the lower class and were not paid as well as the men who worked these same jobs. Yet despite the low pay, women continued to work diligently making and filling shells and cartridges, as well as performing cleaning duties, driving, and intense labor. With the munitionettes taking the place of deployed soldiers' places in the factories, they showed great patriotism at the home front.
By the end of the war there were 950,000 women working as mutitionettes. It was pretty dangerous work, and there would occasionally be explosions that would kill some women.
Source
"Munitionettes." Spartacus Educational - Home Page. 6 Apr. 2009 <http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Wmunitions.htm>.
Munitionettes: Independence or Patriotism?" Pat Barker's Regeneration -- Critical Context. Ed. Karin E. Westman. 30 Apr. 2003. 6 Apr. 2009 <http://www.k-state.edu/english/westmank/regeneration/munitionettes.harris.html>
Our Explanation
Munitionettes are important to Regeneration because Sarah Lumb and her friends are munitionettes. Without munitionettes the war wouldn't have been as successful for Great Britain because when all the men were off fightingthere would have been no one to build the weapons.